The History of Madden

[gingerbreadmann]

ESPN had this fantastic article on the history and origins of the Madden NFL game today. One part in particular talks about one facet of the game that we on this board often very closely scrutinize: the updating of logos, uniforms, and gear. Here is the relevant section:

Ian Cummings is the creative director for "Madden." If there's something amiss in the way the game plays, it's ultimately his fault. Mike Young is in charge of art. If the style of Pittsburgh's digital helmet numbers looks wrong, he's probably to blame. Cummings played his first game of "Madden" on the Apple II. Young grew up in St. Louis before the Rams arrived; as a child, "Madden" was his NFL. In a large corner office adorned with a University of Tennessee flag, the two work side by side, in part to better communicate, in part to commiserate, as in the following exchange:

Cummings: "Updating player gear is such a pain. Like a guy changing from a single wristband to a double. It never stops."

Young: "We have people that just catalog this stuff every week. A player will start wearing team-colored gloves. A team will put a special logo on the 20-yard line for Week 8. Another team won't wear a special patch. And if we don't have that, it ruins the game for some people."

Cummings: "'Madden' might have the hardest community to please. It's painful. It ruins weekends. I've been out to dinner with my wife, and I check my phone [for online fan feedback]. It's all, 'You suck; you're terrible; give up the NFL license.'"

Young: "The perception among some people is that the game doesn't change every year. But I'm here working 16-hour days and sleeping in the office. That perception hurts."

I suggest you read the whole thing, though. It's a really interesting piece. But for something so minute that we observe and criticize so often, it is interesting to hear from the people who are actually responsible for keeping up that stuff. They mess up quite a bit, but it must be a painstaking job nonetheless.

[TruColor]

Other than some assorted screen shots on this very board, I have NEVER seen Madden. Not once.

[/selfservingpointlesspost]

[gingerbreadmann]

Don't worry; the screen

o

make it seem so much better than the real thing. I'd keep it that way if I were you.

[BadSeed84]

The first madden for the genesis has the most awesome theme ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvuNSUst418

[santoleri3]

The first madden for the genesis has the most awesome theme ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvuNSUst418

Wow, between that sound clip from early Madden and that crazy throwback Phils promo in your user profile, I think you're my new hero, Eddie J!

[Mac the Knife]

I just spent 30 minutes reading that article. And oddly, I'm not lamenting that I can't get those minutes back. Good find!

[PalomboPicasso]

That is a great article. It's interesting to hear more of the in's and out's from the developers mouth. I recently moved into my new house and while packing/unpacking, I came across my copy of the very first Madden video game: John Madden Football for PC/IBM. It came out in 1988 and is on a 7 inch floppy disk. Crazy seeing how far the game have come.

[Blue Falcon]

I don't follow Madden any more, but I never cared about whether they were accurate in terms of individual player equipment. What I DID care about was them getting the uniforms right every year...which they NEVER did.

The Bills in blue pants up until around 1996 or so was one I remember very well, and forcing home teams who played the Cowboys into their white jerseys. I'm sure others can list them here, but some of their mistakes were so ridiculous it made me wonder if they'd ever watched the NFL at all.

[jimbojohnny56]

Computer geeks can't satisfy the uni geeks.Seriously though if these guys just got some real nfl fans to help them out maybe they would'nt need to work 16 hour days and still things up.

[neo_prankster]

Even when Madden didn't have the NFL license back in the Genesis/SNES generation, it was still a cool game franchise.

[hormone]

Did it mention that they still don't include the Chargers current powder blues, but they have (I believe) 2 powder blue era throwbacks? I don't know if they are lazy or restricted somewhat, but I could list their uniform errors in a few hours if they ever wanted to correct them.

[hockey week]

When they have the uniform library of ESPN NFL 2K5, without charging extra, I'll be happy.

Seriously, they paid some $30mil to buy the NFL license, the NFLPA license, ESPN license, and SportsCenter license just so 2K games wouldn't be allowed to compete, and they keep cranking out the same game, plus or minus a gimmick, every year.

The sad part is, that a few simple additions to the presentation (and bringing back create-a-playbook!) that 2K had 5 years ago would improve the game tenfold.

[CS85]

NFL2K5 also had some incredible pre-game/post game features including an ESPN-style interview with the MVP as well as going over highlights for your game and others.

I imagine since the rights were purchased to bogard the NFL-entire, Madden's given a pretty meager quota of what to do for the next year's games. They can't blow their wad every year because this franchise could go on indefinitely and every year they need something new to promote. I think that blows, but it's true. In my mind Madden would do much better for themselves if they released a new copy of madden every other year, and in odd years have a major update with new rosters for a low-cost DLC pack. That way their design team can put in a much larger amount of time in making a better game through each version.

[BlueSky]

When they have the uniform library of ESPN NFL 2K5, without charging extra, I'll be happy.

Seriously, they paid some $30mil to buy the NFL license, the NFLPA license, ESPN license, and SportsCenter license just so 2K games wouldn't be allowed to compete, and they keep cranking out the same game, plus or minus a gimmick, every year.

The sad part is, that a few simple additions to the presentation (and bringing back create-a-playbook!) that 2K had 5 years ago would improve the game tenfold.

That should be illegal and I'm still bitter that NFL 2K5, which kicked Madden's a** in just about every way, ended up a one-shot wonder.